Tuesday Miscellany!

[maxomai]

• Diane Feinstein, who never saw an authoritarian measure she didn't like, is aghast at how far the surveillance state has gone, and is demanding that the White House stop spying on our allies. The White House has politely told her to bugger off. Thus, Barack Obama continues to justify the F- grade I give him on civil liberties. By the way, progressives, if you want to know why groups like the NRA, GOA, CCRKBA, SAF, and so on are bitterly against even opening the door to gun crime research, it's because the Federal government has a habit of taking a mile when you give them an inch, the Constitution be damned. The NSA scandals should be the case in point.


• Marilyn B. Tavenner, the official in charge of HealthCare.gov, apologized before a House Ways and Means Committee Hearing for the utter disaster of a website rollout. If you need insurance before the website is fixed, you're better off using your phone: 1-800-318-2596


• Israeli attacks on Palestinian olive groves are kept "top secret." More here. Olive groves might not sound like a big deal to Americans, but they're a staple crop, and many of those groves go back hundreds of years. Destroying these groves denies Palestinians food and an economic base, on their own legally-held land, and is tantamount to ethnic cleansing.


• Apple censored Lawrence Lessig's comments on WiFi failures in iOS 7. This fits a pattern of behavior I've noticed with Apple, where their response to obvious serious technical issues in their products is a wall of silence, denial, and groupthink. It's crap like this that makes me want to replace my Macbook Pro with a Debian system. I might give Crossover Games a try soon and see whether that lets me run EVE Online reliably. If so, I'm likely to make the switch soon.

Comments

[fengi.livejournal.com]

Dude that's totally tinfoil hat Alex Jones territory to pretend gun research is in anyway the same as the NSA. It's beneath you, I would hope, unless you've thrown in with the whack jobs who opposes the census and FDA. If it makes sense to collect statistics for a wide variety of devices and chemicals which various uses, blocking research for something which has no purpose except killing things makes me wonder how much of a zealot are you? A national comprehensive study involves zero "gummit take mah guns" risk but would provide concrete accurate data for rational common ground and likely support claims from both sides - which is why gun nuts oppose it, I suspect.

Whodda thunk it?

[arkham4269.livejournal.com]

The Israelis doing ethnic cleansing? Who would have thought it? (/sarcasm)

I guess no one has had the guts to tell Israel that Holocaust does not equal get out of having to obey the Rule of Law.

Plus I believe anyone who even brings up the word "security" in regards to Israel should be beaten repeatedly with a haddock. Right now Israel is their own threat to themselves given how they seem hellbent (Sheol bent?) to create the type of insurgents seen in Iraq.

...or maybe that is there plan so they can do what they do best. Car Bomb goes off? Blow up a building in response. Blow up a building? Blow up a neighborhood. in response.

[maxomai.livejournal.com]

Dude that's totally tinfoil hat Alex Jones territory to pretend gun research is in anyway the same as the NSA.

Tin-foil or not, this is exactly what they see: a concerted effort by a cultural bloc that only knows about guns through movies, television, video games, and being at the wrong end of one; and that wants, therefore, to do away with them by any means possible, no matter how narrow the window is that presents itself, and regardless of the facts of the matter. (NB: it's obvious you're part of that bloc, btw.)

They hear "research" and figure that, rather than being in any way comprehensive or objective, it's going to be the usual bullshit coming from the Brady Campaign, only this time funded by taxpayer dollars. Why should they think otherwise?

Re: Whodda thunk it?

[maxomai.livejournal.com]

I think Israeli politics make it impossible to rein in the zealots. If I'm right, it's going to make continued ethnic cleansing all but impossible to control. It will continue, either officially or unofficially, for the indefinite future.